Favoritism, trying to get me fired.

In my office, employees receive their assignments from their managers. In other words, our work is sent to a private email which my manager only has access too and forwards to us. I've always had a decent amount of work but recently my manager has been picking favorites and sending assignments to the office brown nose and his select favorites. I find this practice idiotic as he places all of his eggs in one basket (a few become highly trained and experienced over the rest of us). If one of his favorite quits, get's sick, or get's fired their position has to now be filled by someone with less experience and training.

Recently his favoritism has gotten so extreme that my work has trickled down to almost nothing while other employees are working 10 hour shifts. He may be attempting to starve me off and get me fired for low productivity (although that would be stupid as it would make him look bad as well). I've spoke with him about this several times now and his responses are always vague one word answers. He's usually busy so I rarely get more than a few minutes with him alone.

I've already started looking for another job. My guess is eventually a higher-up may notice that I'm not doing anything and fire me and this is just his passive aggressive way of getting rid me.

Or this could all be in my head. My company maybe really slow at the moment and I may have to just have to wait this slow period out until my company becomes busy again. But if that's true, why are some employees working overtime?

While you may not express your feelings in the workplace the same as you express them in an anonymous forum, your colleagues and boss can pick up on you being not happy in the workplace.

Your boss is probably playing favorites, so what? That happens in every single workplace in the entire world. You give more work and more responsibility to those that you believe will produce. It is normal. It is the way the world works.

A good boss will take employees that are not their favorites and usually will first try to help them. They will see if there is something they can do, a small piece of advice or effort they can put forth to help the employee become more productive. If this doesn't work, they will often times start assigning menial or lesser tasks as to get what they can from the employee.

Then there are employees you just want gone. An assertive boss will go through channels to fire the employee. A boss that wants to avoid conflict will let the system take care of the employee through lack of hours, etc.

A higher up will not have to notice. Your boss will tell the higher ups that he or she has tried, that he provided you tasks and your performance was not as good as your peers. Your boss will make the case that they tried to help you. It doesn't have to be true, it is simply what bosses tell higher-ups. The boss is not going to tell a higher up that he or she just doesn't like you and that he is playing favorites.

Looking for a different job is a good strategy. Another strategy is to look for a transfer if that is available. You could also talk with your peers and try to learn what they are doing that allows them to be assigned more work other than asking them how they "brown nose" and last you can continue to try and ask your boss how you can improve your performance.

Although I dont disagree with you you're obviously not in my workplace and don't know my situation but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I have asked my manager for feedback on several occasions, literally going in to his office after hours and asking how I've been doing. His response were always broad one word answers "good" or "fine."

I'm nothing but nice to my manager and my colleagues. I've brought in pastries and snacks for everyone on a number of occasions and I havent had any arguments with anyone except for a few rare occasions. I make friendly banter with everyone and I try to keep myself focused on my work.

I think it's poor management to pick favorites. As I stated before, you put all your eggs in one basket.

I also think its poor management to passive aggressively set me up for termination. Eventually the higher ups are going to wonder why I was on the payroll doing nothing for so long. And when this happens I'm not going to be the one who gets blamed.

If he had a meeting with me and laid out what I was doing wrong and where I need to improve I would probably agree with you. But I've had no such meeting.

There's also the possibility that we happen to be in a extremely slow period and there simply isn't enough work to go around. I'm not sure. My manager barely communicates with anyone except for his favorites. I guess only time will tell.

Your situation is quite typical. I was in a similar situation. My patience helped me. I just waited a while and the situation changed in my favor. Some managers need to be given time so that they themselves understand the situation and if you feel that you are right, then you need a little patience. If your work is pleasant to you and you know that you are in your place, then be a strategist. You need to think not about tactics, but about strategy is your future position at work. Conversations with the manager are useless. Some react passively, but others can fire.

Thanks @Arkady I try not to allow my emotions interfere with decisions relating to business however I've found that my "gut instinct" are usually right and now it's telling me that something is off.

I've had slow periods before but this is unlike anything I've ever experienced. Over my past 40 hour work week I literally worked less than two hours. Other employees less skilled and less qualified than me seem to be working more than me.

My manager is weak and easily manipulated by the strong minded individuals in the room. My guess is that we may be low on work and he's too afraid of my colleagues to lesson their workload. So basically, I'm getting the short end of the stick because I don't intimidate him.

Or, as I mentioned before, he doesn't like me and is trying to get ride of me by proxy i.e. my low productivity. I'm not sure what the issue is but I'm not waiting to get fired. I've been applying to other jobs and if one of them is a good fit I'm going to take it asap.

If I don't get another offer in time I'm going to try to weather the storm and see if things get better. One of my colleagues is leaving in a few weeks and his absence might boost my workload. If things don't get better when he leaves something is wrong.

I think you have an unhealthy atmosphere at work. There won't be success at work if the relationship is not very good. As you describe your attitude to the manager, the best option is to change the manager. If this is a complicated process, then it is better to look for a new job and get out of the current place of job, without saying goodbye, because you were not appreciated. The choice is yours. But keep in mind that there can be similar situations on a new job. Be sure to consider your age, not just your experience.

I confronted him and he finally started sending me work again. It's clear he only reacts to fear and intimidation (not to sound Machiavellian). Otherwise he (nor anyone else at my job) takes me seriously. Luckily I am speaking to another recruiter right now and if bodes well I might have a new job!

Unfortunately the job offer fell through the cracks and to add insult to injury the boss man stopped sending me work again. For all of last week I barely worked at all. It seems he's trying to pigeon hole me and only send me work that that is incredibly specific towards my job description and use that as the excuse not to send me work.

So I'm back at square one again. I have no work and so I'm waiting to be fired and I have no job prospects so quitting is currently not an option. I feel like he's trying to passive aggressively insult me - make me feel so useless and unwanted.

@Richard@DecisionSkills I might as well ride it out as far as it will go until I find a new job. He's hard to read because he never communicates and has never once held a meeting with me personally or the entire staff. I get the feeling that he doesn't want me to grow and become "a part of the team" but he doesn't want to fire me either and he doesn't know what to make of me.

He's incredibly sensitive and nit-picky and I think he's afraid that I might be against him. I harbor no ill-will towards him so I'm not sure why he would consider me a threat. I think if he would just send me my own projects and let me take the reins on my own work I would learn and grow. But for some reason he's not letting that happen, nor is firing me. He's just kind of stringing me along in employee limbo. This scene from office space pretty almost exactly explains my situation - https://youtu.be/_iiOEQOtBlQ